The past few weeks have been busy, besides prepping for midterms and finals, because there have been trailers for upcoming or far, far away films. There have been superheroes teaming up (again), giant robots fighting (again), monster franchises beginning (in two studios), and horror films being either rebooted or given the prequel treatment.
Is it a good thing to have this many previews at one time? It’s a completely two-sided question. It can be yes, because this says that there are plenty of new releases coming into theaters this year, which should keep our eyes open. It can be no, because with all of these trailers coming out in such a concentrated bunch, you will judge them in the order they arrive and gravitate towards the one that spoke to you most.
Justice League (2017) is expected to be an Avenger-esque adventure that unites the comic-book team of Batman, Wonder Woman, the Flash, Cyborg, Aquaman, and somehow Superman against the threat of an invading army led by Steppenwolf. It has to introduce three of its cast as well as explain the threat that is coming. The trailer supplied an introduction to the new three and delivered by showing Flash within the speed force, Aquaman fighting in his element or with the trident, and Cyborg using his new tech to change the battle.
It also featured Wonder Woman’s fighting skills at their peak and Batman’s resourcefulness; plenty to get any fan of the comics thrilled for the entire adventure. Still nothing on the main villain so far, which we only had a glimpse of in a deleted scene. So far the DCEU has been off to a low start with exciting previews ending up with decent or low-hitting products, so it is difficult to judge whether the film will live up to the previews.
Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017) is the third reboot of the friendly-neighborhood webslinger with Tom Holland returning after stealing a portion of the show in Captain America: Civil War (2016). The trailer that arrived not so long ago featured Peter showing off the new suit, the Vulture (Michael Keaton) giving his motivations and threats, Iron Man taking away the new suit, and Spidey (in a new suit) fighting the Vulture at high altitudes.
This trailer had plenty of action, but left many questions that are hopefully answered in July. This includes: Why does Tony take back the suit if Peter saved lives? Will there be too much Iron Man? Is Peter merely caught up in another of Stark’s problems? Besides the Stark issue (nothing against RDJ, just that the character has caused more problems than fixed), Holland seems to act and play-around with the part of Peter Parker really well and hopefully this continues Marvel’s win-streak (unless Guardians of the Galaxy 2 doesn’t serve up, which we hope is unlikely).
It (2017) is a remake of a classic Stephen King-based novel that stars Bill Skarsgard as Pennywise the Clown, who hunts and kills children in the town of Derry. The trailer shows many shots that were shown in the 1990 classic, including Georgie getting taken through the sewer, the balloons in the library, and Bill hallucinating his dead brother. Pennywise itself is given a few glimpses which shows off how horrifying the being is compared to Tim Curry’s portrayal while sticking close to the original 1986 novel by focusing more on Pennywise’s ability to feed on fear rather than annoyance (Tim Curry was still awesome). Hopefully this film serves its roots well while using the new age to apply some really disturbing sequences.
With its non-television and latch to the source material, it should serve as an extremely screwed-up ride into some deep phobias. It has stolen a lot of views since its premiere and will arrive in September in time for classes. Let’s face it though, Thor: Ragnorok’s trailer blew it out of the water (Thor v. Hulk v. Blanchett v. Loki?), and Star Wars: The Last Jedi trailer definitely stunned everyone. There’s too much excitement this year leading to a large-scale Avenger’s adventure (where Thanos stands), Mummies fighting Tom Cruise, probably another Fast and Furious film, and Batman-centric time one year later (if they fix the other films that lead up to it by then).
Enjoy the day.
